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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

First Earth Quake (non metaphorical)

So I'm at work, you know working, when I feel/hear the building rumbling. This is pretty normal, considering I work in an old brick building downtown off of Main Street, and every time a freight truck drives through, our building shakes. No big deal.

But after a few minutes, I realized the shaking felt different. Like, we were bouncing sideways, not shaking up and down. And everything in the room was doing the shimmy shimmy. It felt like I was on a boat in rough water, like my balance was off. But I was sitting. It was really weird.

A second later, I hear my boss call down from the hall to say "Does anyone else feel that?" and the sales guy in the next office says "yeah, that's a tremor. Just an earthquake." (sales guy is from California).

My first reaction: OMG EARTH QUAKE APOCALYPSE.

END OF DAAAAAAYS

I instantly turned into a 5 year old who's scared of thunder in a thunderstorm; rapid heart beat and panicky feelings and excited jibbering trying to take my mind off the HOLY EARTHQUAKE OF DOOM. But about a minute after it started, it was over. And the after shocks were completely subtle, and might have even just been me vibrating with nerves.

And I definitely spent the next two hours in minor freak out mode. Like, I knew there was (likely) nothing to worry about, but the fact that there were quakes in Colorado the night before, and that my friends in Jersey and Boston were telling me they felt it, too; I was, to say the least... unsettled.

So, yeah. My very first earth quake. Neat! I need this t-shirt, totally:

I had texted Addie during my great ordeal, but he said he and Dog hadn't noticed that anything happened.

However, I noticed Dog has remained braced for impact since I've been home:

Prepared Dog is Prepared.

Speaking of earth quake prepardness, my first instinct during the earthquake was to text everyone saying "ZOMG I'M IN AN EARTHQUAKE!", not get under the desk or get out of the building.
And then I leaped onto Facebook to let everyone know I survived instead of checking the Geological sites or the News for any condition updates.

Audrey's mom says I yelled up to my boss's son asking him WHAT WAS HE DOING for God's sake??!!?? Then we ran out of the house. But as we ran out, the dogs ran in and we were trying to get the dogs back OUT when I got Audrey's text. Then we all sat down outside and said wow. It was a BIG earthquake!